Thanks to Macy’s and the Be Book Smart campaign, we’ll be giving more than half a million books to kids who need them most. That’s a lot of books! And a lot of possibilities for children who wouldn’t otherwise have a book to call their own.
A big thanks goes out to Macy’s, their store associates and customers for making the 2015 Be Book Smart campaign a huge success!
RIF has incredible resources to encourage reading and learning during the summer, including lists of our favorite books, games and downloadable activities perfect for the whole family, including a fun, shareable children’s book quiz!
We’ve also partnered with some of the best names in children’s literacy and learning to help children across the country discover a love of reading. Check out PBS KIDS Summer Safari for daily tips and adventures in science, social studies and more! Also, be sure to tune in to the PBS KIDS twitter party on July 15 at 2pm EST. Our very own Dr. Judy Cheatham will join the conversation! #PBSKIDSLearn.
Looking for additional resources? Visit Leapfrog’s Summer Camp where kids can explore the world around them online and in person. These fun activities are perfect to keep kids laughing, thinking and learning this summer.
Are you up for a challenge? The National PTA is currently hosting a Family Reading Challenge for families to read together and create memories to last a lifetime. The Challenge is a terrific way to stay engaged all summer long.
RIF is constantly updating our free online resources so check back often to discover new opportunities to inspire reading throughout the year!
RIF has an amazing group of volunteers, authors and celebrities who donate their time, talents and passion for promoting children’s literacy. One June 19, noted author and historian, Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, joined RIF at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC, for story-time events and a meet and greet.
Although Reeve has done numerous events at the museum over the years, this was the first time she was able to be up close to her father’s plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, as it is being renovated and is on the main floor. It was a poignant moment to hear her tell stories of her mom and dad and the airplanes they flew.
Nearly 100 children and their families joined Reeve as she read one of her books, Nobody Owns the Sky, the story of the first African American female pilot, Bessie Coleman. The children donned aviator masks, jackets and white scarves and listened to Reeve as she rhymed her way though the book’s passages. In typical RIF fashion, each child attending the event received their very own copy of Nobody Owns the Sky to take home.
To encourage learning about aviation and how planes work, download RIF’s activity sheet, a great companion to the book.
We are thankful to Reeve Lindbergh and our hosts at the National Air & Space Museum for a fun-filled morning of storytelling and look forward to soaring to new heights in the future!
Summer is a time when we kick back and relax and enjoy the time-honored traditions of parades, patriotic songs, fireworks, pie-eating contests and reading our favorite books by the dock.
For many children in our country, however, access to books during the summer is scarce. That’s where Macy’s comes in. From June 21 to July 12, you can provide a book for a child in need by giving $3 at your local Macy’s. As a thank you, you’ll receive $10 off* a purchase of $30 or more plus 20% or 15% off* storewide. 100% of your $3 donation benefits RIF and the kids we serve.
This July 4th, let’s all celebrate the things that make America great – including your generous spirit to help children read, learn and grow.
Looking for fun inspiration this summer? Check out RIF’s summer book lists, games and activities perfect for the whole family!
*Exclusions and restrictions apply.
To commemorate this year’s Be Book Smart campaign, RIF and Macy’s commissioned a survey of parents of young children on topics ranging from summer learning to book access. Key findings from the survey include:
- Three in five parents don’t believe their own children lose reading skills over the summer – however during the summer months, we know that all children are at risk of losing reading ability gained during the school year.
- The majority of parents agree all kids should have access to books – yet 2 out of 3 children living in poverty have no books to call their own.
- Roughly two-thirds of parents with young children (65%) say reading books during the summer is “extremely important.”
- During the school year, on average, parents of young children say their child spends about 5.7 hours a week reading books, on par with time spent using a smartphone or tablet (5.1 hours) or playing video games (4.6 hours).
- More than half of parents with young children (57%) say they will not leave home without a book for their children this summer.
The results of the survey, conducted by Harris Poll in May among 525 U.S. parents ages 22+ of 5-11 year-olds in school, are made public as Macy’s and RIF celebrate the 12th annual Be Book Smart campaign to support children’s literacy.
From now through July 12, Macy’s invites customers nationwide to give $3 at any register in-store to help provide a book for a child in need. As a thank you, Macy’s customers get $10 off a purchase of $30 or more PLUS 20% or 15% off storewide. Macy’s will donate 100% of every $3 to RIF. Since 2004, Macy’s has helped raise more than $32 million for RIF.
Let’s make sure all children have access to as many books as possible to inspire reading this summer!
Summer has arrived and you know what that means – it’s time to kick off Be Book Smart and spark a child’s imagination through the power and magic of books.
From June 21 – July 12, 2015, give $3 at any local Macy’s store and you’ll help provide a book for a child who needs it most. As a thank you, Macy’s customers get $10 off a purchase of $30 or more PLUS 20% or 15% off storewide.*
The timing for the campaign couldn’t be better as we inspire children nationwide to embrace the joy of summer reading.
So be a book hero and participate today. When you do, you’ll be making summer a lot brighter for kids nationwide.
Learn more at Macys.com/RIF.
*Exclusions and restrictions apply. See Macy’s sales associate.
RIF and Macy’s held a book distribution at Nalle Elementary School in Washington, DC to kick off a summer reading pilot program based on the model from RIF’s landmark research study, Read for Success.
Our thanks to everyone at Nalle, especially the students, who made the day a special one! An additional thanks goes out to Macy’s who helped fund the books for students to support reading over the summer.
All of us at RIF would like to thank you for lending your time, talent and resources to support our 2015 Z Is for Moose Gala and the important work we do every day of the year – distributing new, free books and literacy services to the kids and families who need them most. A special thanks goes out to Holly Robinson Peete, our mistress of ceremonies whose charm and personal stories of growing up in a literacy-focused family added to the evening’s festivities.
We congratulate U. S. Senator Roger F. Wicker and U. S. Congressman Rubén Hinojosa who were this year’s recipients of the inaugural Book Champion Award. Thank you for all the work that you do on behalf of children across our nation.
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation was this year’s recipient of the Legacy of Literacy Award. Accepting on behalf of the foundation was Greg Sparks, Dollar General Literacy Foundation board member and executive vice president of store operations. For over a decade, RIF has been extremely fortunate to have the support of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation — one of our most consistent and enthusiastic funding partners.
We’d also like to thank our Anne Hazard Richardson Volunteer of the Year Award recipients who donate their time, talents and energy to motivate children to read. From left to right, RIF president and CEO, Carol H. Rasco, awardees Maira Burns, Dr. Wanda Dawson, Ellen Halliday and Justina Johnson Head along with RIF board chairman, Jack Remondi.
In addition, we’d like to thank Kelly Bingham and Paul O. Zelinsky for their wonderful rendition of the Z Is for Moose story. Their fun and irreverent humor was a wonderful way to end the evening and leave us wanting more.
We hope to see you back again next year as RIF celebrates its 50th anniversary!
P is for Pictures! Click here to see photos from this year’s gala celebration.
We asked you last summer to stay tuned for big news from RIF, and we’re ready to share. Thanks to a U.S. Department of Education Innovative Approaches to Literacy grant in 2012, we began the RIF Read for Success research study to test a model aimed at reducing summer reading loss in children from economically disadvantaged communities. The results made us cheer!
The Problem
Most of us cannot imagine a world without books, without bedtime stories or nursery rhymes, without that wonderful sensation of being read to or reading to others. But study after study confirms that the very memories so many of us hold dear are not typical for millions of Americans. In fact, it’s just the opposite—reading ability, reading materials, reading motivation, and subsequent achievement in school and beyond boils down to harsh economics: For children and families from impoverished communities, two out of three have no books in the home. With 16 million children living in poverty in the United States, too many young Americans are growing up without the basic tools to achieve literacy levels that provide the foundation for future success. Every day, 8,000 students drop out of high school, and nearly half of the adults in our country read at or below a basic level needed to complete everyday activities. Children who don’t learn to read well become adults who can’t read well, and who can’t fully contribute to society.
Beyond the sheer economic impact of low literacy levels, thousands of children each year are missing out on everything that comes with reading well—dreaming big, feeling confident, and achieving more.
Over the summer months, all students are at risk of losing some of what they learned during the school year. When school is in session, all children learn, even if not to the same levels; they all have access to teachers, books, and learning resources. But when school lets out for the summer, poorer children don’t have access to those resources. They don’t go on field trips to the museum or zoo; they don’t go to summer camp or the beach or the mountains; they are not likely to have the very basic materials at home that would support their learning. While they may learn as well as their peers during the school year, the amount of learning they lose over the summer can put them three years behind their peers at the end of fifth grade, and four years behind at the end of high school.
Our Findings
Research tells us that, on average, more than 80% of students from economically disadvantaged communities lose reading skills over the summer. In our study, while our goal was to cut that reading loss in half, to 40%, we actually saw students in our program make significant gains in reading!
On average, 57% of students in the program improved their reading proficiency over the summer – instead of 80% of children showing loss.
Nearly half of third graders made gains! Third grade is commonly known as the time when students move from learning to read into reading to learn. This means that young readers who haven’t mastered reading by the end of third grade are increasingly likely to be lost in more difficult content and vocabulary in the years that follow, as classwork on reading and writing about friends and pets changes to complicated subjects in biology, chemistry, U.S. history, algebra. Not having the skills to rise to the challenge is a factor for many among the 8,000 high schoolers who drop out each day.
Students who began with the lowest reading proficiency made the greatest gains, even those performing below the 10th percentile.
Strong readers improved, too. Read for Success works for children at all levels!
Some students also improved in science and math. Though our study did not track state tests in our 41 school systems, some schools told us that their students showed improvements in science and math assessments. When asked why, school officials said that they attributed those gains to RIF, to our lots and lots and lots of books and enrichment opportunities.
How Did We Do It?
We launched a research study in 2012 to see how schools and communities in some of the poorest, and often most rural, parts of the country could address summer learning loss. As part of the study, we distributed over 760,000 books to 33,000 children from 173 schools across 16 states. The program included science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) themed books for classrooms and media centers, as well as books for children to select and keep for themselves. We also provided training for teachers on how to use the classroom books to support their lessons, and gave special resources to parents to help them support their children at home. Finally, every school was given funds to use for further enrichment: hosting an author, bringing a traveling planetarium or zoo to the area, growing and harvesting a school garden, and other amazing projects – sometimes suggested by the students themselves! Learn more about the model here.
What’s Next?
Access to high-quality books
Giving children access to high-quality books that they can choose on their own is a critical part of our model. Children who choose books that interest them and that are on their own level are more motivated and empowered to read and learn even more! In our study, new books in the classroom and media center collections allowed teachers to integrate and connect different topics or subject areas (like history, math, and science) through stories and wonderful illustrations and photographs suited to elementary school children. These books allowed teachers to apply the concepts that children had learned in their curriculum. For example, in one second grade classroom, students reading about Rachel Carson, the founder of the environmental movement, wondered how old she would be today. Reading a book about her sparked their curiosity and led them on a mathematical journey. That day, the students learned how to do multiple-digit subtraction, even though, as one little girl told me on my visit, “We’re not old enough to do that but we figured it out.”
Teaching through texts
Not only are the books included centered on STEAM themes, most are characterized as informational texts, supporting other school subjects like history or science, and largely non-fiction. These kinds of books set the stage for the areas of learning that students will encounter in third grade, when they switch from learning to read to reading to learn. Doing certain activities, like the ones we create for our Multicultural Book Collection each year, can extend and reinforce learning beyond the book into all kinds of subjects. Children learn by doing, and these activities provide opportunities to do just that.
Schools can use RIF Read for Success
Some schools in our program have found funding to continue the program or have looked for their own ways to extend our model as far as possible. In Pamlico County, North Carolina, for example, Superintendent Wanda Dawson enlisted the entire community to ensure every student from kindergarten to fifth grade would receive books to take home over the summer. Other schools are using Title I money to provide books for family time.
We need to do more research
While this study has shown great results, we still have questions to answer. As always, we will be digging deeper to find out more about the best ways to help children with books. And we promise we’ll keep you updated.
One last thought!
Our RIF staff, including the expert advisors and training team, all feel that some of the best work we have ever done has been in the implementation of this study. The children, families, teachers, and staff of the 173 schools have been delightful to work with and a pleasure to serve. We are so grateful that the U.S. Department of Education, through its Innovative Approaches to Literacy grant, has allowed us the wonderful opportunity to add to the body of knowledge about summer learning loss, and we all feel fortunate to have been a part of this endeavor.
Update: Thank you to everyone who shared their favorite #MacysLovesMoms photos! Because of you, Macy’s will donate $80,000 to RIF to support our mission to bring books and the joy of reading to children across the nation.
Being mom is a big job, full of tall orders and nearly impossible tasks, bath times, teddy bears, boo-boos—and beautiful, unforgettable moments.
Share Your Love, Thank A Mom. This year, join RIF and Macy’s to celebrate moms and all they do with your favorite throwback pics. From April 27 through Mother’s Day, when you share your favorite mom memories on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr using #MacysLovesMoms and #RIF, Macy’s will donate $3 for every mom moment shared, up to $400,000, to mom-approved charities like RIF. Find out more about the campaign here.
We asked RIF staff to share their best photos and mom moments, and you won’t be surprised to know our moms, aunts, and grandmas were book nerds, too. Check out our memories (and mom fashion statements) below, then share your own with #MacysLovesMoms to support RIF this Mother’s Day.
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Carol Rasco, President and CEOReading with her daughters was as much a part of my mother’s parenting as feeding us, having us brush our teeth at night, mind our manners and such. I remember feeling puzzled that bedtime could arrive at my friends’ homes, and they did not read with a parent as they went to bed. How did those friends fall asleep with no shared story? |
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Tracey Beeker, VP of Marketing and CommunicationsCan you tell our Mom was a librarian? She instilled a love of books with all four of us – even though my youngest brother looks like he’d rather be taking a nap. |
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Aileen Moffatt, VP of DevelopmentWhen I was seven, I went to London with my Mum and Dad on vacation. The thing I remember most about London? We went to an enormous children’s bookstore and I was able to pick out whatever I wanted. All the historic sites didn’t come close to that! Books and books and more books, or at least that is how I saw it. It was divine! The book I remember most from that adventure was A Child’s Garden of Verse. It was SO beautiful! I still have it. |
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Ameesha Sampat, Communications Manager Growing up, my sister and I weren’t supposed to touch the furniture in the living room. Mom made it clear that that floral sofa was off limits. But when we shut our bedroom door and rearranged our beds and bookcases to create the ultimate reading nook, she offered ideas on how to make it cozier (protip: use lots of stuffed animals and pillows) and let us read until dinner. |
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Jennifer Moone, Director of Government RelationsReading the Little Golden Book Little Lost Kitten with my mom was a daily occurrence in my house. We read it together so often that before long, I was flipping the pages and telling my mom the story of the kitten’s adventures, even though I was too young to read the words yet! |
Learn about the campaign at Macys.com/MacysLovesMoms.
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